choice_of_rebelsfandomcom-20200214-history
Magic
Summary (from Game World Index) Theurgy is a mystery. According to the Ecclesiasts, it is a gift of power from the Blessed Angels to especially worthy individuals who can be trusted to defend Xthonos's sacred Order. For anyone not chosen by the Angels, attempting Theurgy is a grave sin. There's an old-fashioned word, "goete," for a black magician who consorts with Xaos-demons to duplicate the results of Theurgy; "the Abomination of Goety" is one of the worst crimes listed in the Karagond Canon. The one thing everyone knows about Theurgy is that it requires blood. Harrowers yield rarefied "aetherial" blood, which is particularly potent. The reasons for its potency are rumored to be both sacrificial (drawing power from the anguish of the victims) and alchemical (involving a closely guarded refinement process). Theurges generally keep bandoliers equipped with dozens of small phials, which they pour or break into their hands to fuel their powers. As long as their blood supply holds out, Theurges can move people or objects, heal illness, fly, turn people to dust, conjure immense fireballs out of oil of vitriol, and a wide range of other marvels. Most of the Theurgy you've heard of is fleeting, quickly consuming the blood that fuels it. Some spells have permanent effects; the Hegemony's [https://choice-of-rebels.fandom.com/wiki/Plektoi Plektoi] shock troops are Theurgically altered giants with leathery skin and stone-hard bones. But making Changes of that sort is supposed to require much more blood. It's almost impossible to imagine the quantities required to maintain a massive enchantment like the Border Wards or the Floating Palace of the Thaumatarch. You wouldn't have thought there was that much blood in the entire population of the Hegemony. How People Think Theurgy Works The ritual of sacrifice (including the death of the person concerned) is supposedly essential to turning normal blood into aetherial blood. That’s part of what makes people so afraid of Goetes… if they aren’t using Harrowers, what kind of obscene sacrifices must ''they'' carrying out to get their power? Since the refinement process is a sacred secret, though, you have no idea of why this would be the case. And if you were caught asking the question, you’d be punished for sacrilege and/or sedition. ([https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/choice-of-rebels-part-1-wip-thread/1601/504 source]) How Theurgy Works "When I look at a blade, I'm not just seeing what it's made of. It's like I'm directly seeing what it was made for—cutting, severing, injury. All together, in a sort of blur. And most of what's in the blur, I don't recognize." In Game One (''Uprising'') it is possible to learn/deduce the following about Theurgy: * When you use the philosophers' litany to go into trance and then spill blood, either aetherial or your own, it briefly alters your senses. * In Theurgic trance, you can perceive a thing's ''telos'', or purpose: the heart of its nature, the goal towards which it moves, that which fulfils its reason for being. For example, the striving of elements to rise (air, fire) or fall (earth, water), or the spear's purpose of piercing. * Every philosophy text you've read has used the word 'unchanging' to describe ''teloi''. To alter anything's 'final cause' would be to destroy or unmake it. And yet it seems that when in trance, you can Change what you see--as long as you understand it well enough to see it clearly. (Otherwise it remains a blur, too complex to grasp.) * It seems to be easiest when you try to make a Change that goes with the grain of a thing's nature, rather than outright reversing its ''telos''. "So encouraging the elements of air and fire to rise would be easier than levitating an object made almost entirely earth or water. And ripening crops would be easier than withering them." -- Horion Leilatou Much more will be learned in ''Stormwright'' Chapter One. For now, however, those facts remain [[Theurgy (spoilers)|spoilers]]. Uses of Theurgy [[Agricultural Theurgy]] [https://choice-of-rebels.fandom.com/wiki/Cryptography Cryptography] [https://choice-of-rebels.fandom.com/wiki/Communications#Flying_Couriers Flying Couriers] [https://choice-of-rebels.fandom.com/wiki/Healing Healing] Military [https://choice-of-rebels.fandom.com/wiki/Plektosis Plektosis] [https://choice-of-rebels.fandom.com/wiki/Techne Techne] [https://choice-of-rebels.fandom.com/wiki/Wards Wards] =